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Topic: Bottle options for 5 volumes of CO2? (Read 1426 times)

So I plan on making a rather sparkling beer for my wedding in May, and I'm wanting to go for somewhere around 4.5 - 5 volumes of CO2. Regular old brown bottles will surely explode at this pressure, and I don't really have the money for a corker, big bottles, cork, and cages. So what are my options? Anyone know any sources for thick, heavy bottles of a decent size that can just be capped? As much as I'd love to go out and buy ~50 bottles of a good belgian of the same carbonation level I'm going for, I'm simply not a millionaire.

champagne bottles (The american ones) will accept a crown cap usually. I will try to find a link to an online supplier that I have used in the past but also check your LHBS and the big online ones (Northern Brewer MoreBeer etc.)

**EDIT** This is not the supplier I have used but I think they have a pretty good rep. The bottles are green so you will have to keep them out of the stong light but...

I didn't get mine here, I got them at the LHBS but these are essentially the same thing. You need the cage of course.

Also, there are variances in either the plastic corks or the opening of the bottles (or both) so some are tighter, some are looser.

I've found that in general, imported champagne bottles are the tightest and Belgian bottles are the loosest, but I can get all to seal just fine. Sometimes I need to try a few corks to get one that fits.

As to the crown caps, I always thought you needed a larger crown cap than standard to fit a champagne bottle, but I may be mistaken. Supposedly you can change out the center-piece of a capper to accommodate the larger caps.